An Update on Miss Daisy

Daisy found a permanent home with the most wonderful people. She is doing SO well and is very happy. I get frequent updates & pictures to show how well she is.

Daisy has decided that her new owners' great dane dog is her new BFF and she follows him around everywhere! When he naps, she naps; when he eats, she eats; when he walks, she walks. It is the cutest thing!

I'm thrilled that I was able to help Daisy and thrilled that she is somewhere she can grow big & old. Thanks again to all who helped donate for her surgery.

Random Pics of my Reptiles

Sancho in his favorite place to sleep

Sven is ready for adoption!

Ziggy on a good day
 

Daisy exploring my backyard

Mr Bentley outside in his playpen

Hermy, the queen of the backyard

Daisy motoring about the backyard

Daisy checking out Hermy

The closer they got to each other, the more scared they go

Hermy & Daisy were right next to each other and scared of each other

Update on Sancho & Daisy

Sancho is doing great and is super sweet. As long as he is out of his tank and in the sun, he is a happy iggy. He let my daughter hold him and snuggle with him last week. It was so sweet to watch. Last week, he wouldn't go to sleep and was freaking out in his tank. I took him out, wrapped him in his blankie, and rocked him in the rocking chair. He went right to sleep. Yes, he is spoiled. He's quite worth it though. He's finally shedding again because he is finally growing. 

Daisy has been spending every day outside in a little doggie pen. When I can watch her in the afternoon, I let her roam around the yard. She's been staying pretty close to the back porch and to Hermy, my desert tortoise. She loves to eat dandelions and "sample" the other leaves and flowers she finds in the backyard.

Daisy's Progress

Daisy spent another hour outside today and ate 4 or 5 dandelion flowers. It's the first time she has eaten since I got her. Phew! She seems to be "peeing" out her urates without any problem. Another big PHEW!

She doesn't have a lot of stamina yet. She'll walk around for 5 minutes and then have to stop to rest.  I have pain meds for her, but there's not really a way to give them to her. And I don't really know if she needs them. For now, she is in a 55 gallon tank with a long UVB light, two heat lamps, and a heat pad. Her "Sick" tank has to stay between 85 and 90 all the time.

Next week the forecast is for 70 degrees and I plan to let her spend a lot of time outside on the grass in my puppy kennel. The sunlight is one of the bets medicines I can give her. :)

So far so good.

THANK YOU!!! to all the many amazing people who don't even know Daisy, but have donated to her fund. I am overwhelmed with love & joy. What a blessing it is to have an international reptile community to draw on when we need help.

"Daisy's Blankies" a fundraiser

Here is my latest fundraiser: fleece blankies. $3 & $5 (includes shipping). $1 is for postage, all the rest goes to pay off the rest of Daisy's surgery and then will be used for future rescues. These are super nice fleece squares that were donated to me. They make great blankies because you can toss them in the wash when they get dirty and there are no seams for nails to catch on.

Every beardie needs a blankie! Buy yours a blankie at the same time you are helping pay for necessary vet costs for sickly reptiles. Thanks!

Deluxe blankies, $5 total

Unisex Fleece $3 total

Boy Fleece $3 total

Girl Fleece $3 total 

https://www.etsy.com/listing/185107853/daisys-blankies-fundraiser-to-pay-for

Daisy's Recovery

Because the best reptile treatment is sunshine, Daisy is outside in her sun box. It's a bit nippy so I have a heat lamp on one end in case she wants to warm up.

Sancho is jealous that Daisy is outside! 

Daisy's Surgery

I took Daisy in this morning for her big day. Surgery started just after 12 and stopped just before 3. Dr Folland, my amazing vet -- Click HERE for more information-- only charged me for an hour of surgery. He made a small incision in her leg opening and went up laproscopically into her bladder where he started hammering the golfball sized stone into pieces. It was a very long, tedious process.

A urate stone is basically like really hard chalk. Here are some pieces they saved for me. Daisy has had urate stones her whole life and I'm going to have to do some research to figure out how to prevent them.

Once the stone was removed and the bladder was flushed out and stitched back up, Dr Folland had to repair her prolapse. He cleaned off the exposed tissue and then tucked it back inside her. He stitched up her bum to make sure it doesn't fall out again.

Reptiles have a hard time with anesthesia-- going under and coming out. This was Daisy in the vet incubator. I have pain meds for her (though NO idea how I'll actually get them in her) and antibiotic shots for the next month. She'll go back next week for a recheck (hopefully by then she's pooped) and then the stitches come out in a month.

It will take her a day or two to start feeling more perky. Then the goal is to get her to eat & drink. And we will be waiting and waiting and waiting and waiting for her to poop. I think tomorrow will be sunny enough that I can get her outside in direct sunshine. Dr Folland and Dr Echols swear by sunshine therapy. Direct UVB can cure a lot of problems with reptiles. So I'll try that as much as I can. The forecast for next week is predicting temps back in the 70's and I'll stick Miss Daisy outside for several hours a day.

Thanks to all who have donated to the GoFundMe campaign. I stuck the charges on my credit card, but I'm hoping to raise enough money to pay it off. So please feel free to keep donating. Any extra money will go to help other beardies & reptiles.

Click HERE to Donate.  And please feel free to share the donation info with your reptile friends! :)

Daisy, rescue number 45

I took Daisy, a 3 year old sulcata tortoise, in last night thinking she'd be an easier than normal fix. $404 later at the vet today, I learned she is not. Daisy has a prolapsed rectum-- meaning, her intestines are now falling out of her body. :( We thought, at first, it would be simple to just push her insides back inside, but an X-ray showed something different.

Poor Daisy does NOT feel good!  

Daisy has a MASSIVE kidney stone inside of her. It's the size of a golf ball (far larger than her head) and is only removable if the vets cut open her shell and physically cut it out of her body. The surgery is very tedious and long, but it has a great success rate. Without the surgery, she will die.

Here's a picture of her prolapse.

I've been blessed to have been able to pay for most of my vet bills on my own over the last 18 months (thankfully, I have a really good husband who doesn't care that our van isn't paid off and that we didn't have thousands of dollars to go on a cruise or something), but I cannot afford a surgery bill over $1,000.  Several friends recommended creating a "GoFundMe" site so I did.

Please consider helping pay for Daisy's surgery. Thanks! Click HERE for the info!